Kagan criticized the Warren Court

[usregimechange]

From the AP article released today:

AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

She criticized the Supreme Court under Justice Earl Warren's leadership for poorly reasoned rulings on criminal law, writing that decisions "should be based upon legal principle and reason." Instead, she suggested the Warren court was intent on reaching certain conclusions "to correct the social injustices and inequalities of American life" - even if it meant taking legal shortcuts to get there.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_KAGAN_IN_HER_WORDS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

First, I would like to note that this view does not place her outside of Obama's view or what scholars have called "democratic constitutionalism." This has been defined to stress "that courts should pursue many of the same social-justice ends that the Warren Court sought to advance, only using more modest, less uniformly activist means" and in a way that considers the legislative process and the enforcement of laws to be the front line in that battle (NYT, 2009).

Personally, I think those advocating this view, including Obama, have allowed the misconceptions peddled by conservatives to enter into their reasoning verses disputing the premise that those misconceptions are based on to begin with. It was not "judicial activism" to consider segregation to be a violation of the Constitution and to strike it down, it was correct.